“Terrible” World of Warcraft film a “huge distraction” that delayed expansions and patches, ex-Activision Blizzard boss says

Former Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick has branded the 2016 World of Warcraft film “terrible” and “one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen”.

Speaking on the Grit podcast, Kotick shared his frustrations with Blizzard’s attempt to turn the Warcraft MMO into a movie success, and said the project had been a “huge distraction” for the company that ended up causing delays to World of Warcraft game updates.

So why did Kotick let it all happen? Apparently, the deal to make the film happen had already been signed before Activision snapped up Blizzard in 2008.

“World of Warcraft, the movie… I thought was a terrible idea,” Kotick said. “They had signed the deal before we owned the company. It took loads of resources and distracted them.

“Think about all the people who make video games for a living, and now have a chance to make a movie. They were, like, helping with the casting, and they’re on the set… it’s just a huge distraction. Our expansions were late, patches weren’t getting done on time.”

Legendary Blizzard developer Chris Metzen was burned out by the project, Kotick continued, and only returned to Blizzard years later after Kotick “begged” him to come back.

“And the movie was terrible,” Kotick concluded. “It was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.”

Plans had been in place to make a full World of Warcraft film trilogy, but they were scrapped after the movie flopped at the US box office.

“You have what amounts to the most expensive lore wiki ever made,” former editor Oli Welsh wrote in Eurogamer’s World of Warcraft movie review. “A film whose ending will have no impact for anyone who doesn’t know who or what Thrall is; and a story whose greatest moments all lie in sequels that will, in all likelihood, never get made.”

Speaking during the same interview, Kotick also revealed his pitch to Steven Spielberg for a Jurassic Park video game – which he sent to the director inside a large dinosaur egg.

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